the "boredom" you complain of will make you take it up more often: I would be very glad about that. Besides, our situation is now in some sense analogous. We both sit in the countryside in solitude—true, I am a bit further away—and, consequently, we must press on with our correspondence.

It was news to me that Kokushkino has already been designated for sale and that Mitya has left for Kazan on this matter 45. Well then, has he been given a power of attorney to keep the estate for himself? Write me how this affair will be resolved. On the one hand, it seems good that it will finally be concluded, once and for all, but on the other hand—the "end" is still the most unpleasant, troublesome, and, in all probability, loss-making.

I have not only not received the box with books, but did not even know it had been sent. In whose name was it sent and when? To whom was the receipt for goods received forwarded? Write me about all of this. From mama's letter I know that they wanted to send it by the transport office. That means it will take quite a long time—two or three months, I suppose. If any new books were purchased for sending along with it, then please write (if you remember) which ones exactly, otherwise I hesitate now to order any, thinking that they may already be on their way.

I have begun receiving the *Russkiye Vedomosti* and read them with a greediness understandable only as a reaction against long deprivation of newspapers. Has anything else been subscribed to? (*Russkoye Bogatstvo*; *Vestnik Finansov*—in Rybkina's name 46; German ones). I receive newspapers on the 13th day from Wednesday and Saturday. This means the mail travels from Moscow on these days: keep this in mind in case of any calculations about sending things.

I received the day before yesterday the report of the society for popular entertainment 47. Thank you for it.

I have not yet received a single letter from our people abroad. Apparently, with their moving about, they received my letters less frequently and wrote to me less often. How to write to them now—I also do not know. To Bern it is scarcely convenient any longer, and I have no new address. The last time I wrote to mama was a week ago—at the same time as when I sent a postcard to you.

Today I am not writing to her separately, but so that she should not become anxious and should have some news this time—please forward this letter to her.

It would not be a bad idea if Mitya, upon his return, took up paper-destroying. I have not yet answered his "theoretical" letter: the thing is that I was so scattered in Moscow that I remembered nothing from his account of the question that interests him. And from his letter I could not form a completely definite impression, firstly, because he was too brief; secondly, because I do not have at hand the Russian translation of the book he cites, and therefore cannot make the necessary verification.

I shake your hand. Your V. U.

P. S. The thought of arranging for books to be sent here from some capital library occupies me more and more frequently; I am beginning to think sometimes that without this it will not be possible to carry on literary work here: it is so necessary for it to have an impulse from without, which here is absolutely lacking.

in the journal

Sent from the village of Shushenskoye to Moscow

First published in 1929

*Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya* No. 2-3

Printed from the manuscript